Yale's overtime win over Army one of biggest in program's recent history

NEW HAVEN — During his first two seasons as Yale's 34th head football coach, Tony Reno won eight games. But if you ask his boss, Athletic Director Tom Beckett, it was not an unproductive time.

"Tony has connected this team to our history," Beckett said. "They feel a part of the Heisman Trophy winners and undefeated teams that have been a part of our legacy."

Reno has much heaped on his dish, like UConn's Bob Diaco does now in his first year, rebuilding tactically and institutionally, incrementally changing the way players do things and think.

UConn is struggling now. So was Yale, which won three times in 2012 and five times last season.

But now, as the Bulldogs prepare for their Ivy League opener on Saturday at Cornell, things appear to be taking shape in the way Reno has envisioned.

Yale plays Army at home as the historic rivalry is renewed.

Seemingly connected to the commonality of their goal, the Bulldogs have burst from their portal with two of the most profound victories in the 142 seasons of the program.

On Sept. 20, Yale fell behind Lehigh 21-0 in the first nine minutes before rallying for a 54-43 win. It was its biggest come-from-behind win ever at Yale Bowl, celebrating its 100th birthday this season. And the Lehigh game was the 601st first played in the historic venue.

And then last Saturday against Army, the renewal of a once-staunch rivalry that dates to 1893, Yale overcame a 14-point second half deficit to win, 49-43, in overtime.

Senior halfback Tyler Varga, an aspiring orthopedic surgeon from Ontario, Canada, gained 185 yards and became just the third player in program history to score five touchdowns in one game.

"We continue to follow the process," Reno said. "I can't tell you how proud I am of them. I told them [after the game] that they are an incredible group of young men with unlimited potential. We are going to keep pushing to realize it."

Some of it has already been realized: No Ivy League team since Penn beat Navy in 1986 had accomplished anything like it in the last three decades.

"At this point, it's clear we all have bought into the process," said Jeff Schmittgens, the senior defensive end. "You can see the difference, not only in the quality of play, but in the mentality of the team."

Saturday was a big day for Yale, certainly one of its most important in the modern era for a program intent on rebuilding its image in the eyes of its alumni and fans. Beckett had worked for a decade to bring Army to Yale Bowl for the first time since 1988 to help accent the year-long celebration of Yale Bowl, which opened in 1914.

Beckett had to work through the bureaucracy of the NCAA, which in the past would not allow the game to be counted to Army's bowl eligibility. And he had to convince his own community to have the courage and foresight to put his non-scholarship program on the field against a service academy.

That is why Beckett was so moved after Yale's win.

"We decided as a team to step up to the moment," Yale receiver Grant Wallace said. "And that's what we did."

What Yale has done offensively, with a new offensive coordinator, Joe Conlin, is impressive.

The Bulldogs have gained 1,308 yards and scored 103 points in their two wins. Junior quarterback Morgan Roberts, a Clemson transfer, has completed 67.5 percent (54 of 80) for 666 yards. Roberts has completions to 11 different teammates, led by senior captain Deon Randall, who has 18 this season and 164 in his career, third all-time in program history.

The offense has converted 48 percent of its third down attempts and is perfect on its four fourth-down tries.

And Yale scored 49 points against an Army defense that allowed just 35 to Stanford and 24 to Wake Forest.

Reno, 39, came to Yale from Harvard where he was special teams coordinator and defensive secondary coach from 2009 to 2011. But he had previously spent six years in New Haven, rising to assistant head coach under Jack Siedlecki by the time Yale won the 2006 Ivy League championship.

Along with redefining the recruiting focus, and installing the spread offense which has fueled the current renaissance, Reno has worked to reincorporate the historical connection all Yale players naturally share.

He lobbied Beckett to have "142" stenciled into the Yale Bowl grass as a reminder of this team's place in Yale's timeline; not an unusual request from a guy who earned a degree in history before completing a master's of science in health education from Worcester State in 2000 where he was a three-year starter at free safety.

"There is a continuum from one team to the next," Beckett said Saturday. "It's what ties the great Yale teams from the start of the 20th century to the present."

Reno has instituted a speaker's series that invites individuals from many cultural and professional levels to talk to his team. He has started to take his seniors on summer trips to the Gettysburg battlefields where they discuss how best to lead and inspire their teammates.

The results are just beginning to take shape.

"This is the tightest team I have ever played on at Yale," Varga said.